‘Friends is too strong. We each have a son who was bullied.’

‘Ah, yes, by that Russian boy. A malevolent lump of lard, Beatrice informs me.’

‘Anyway, it’s been sorted.’

‘Agam quam brevissime potero – I wish to be as brief as possible.’ He drew out his cuffs. ‘Do you know where Marvar might be at this moment?’

‘No. Why?’

‘He’s gone missing. So has his son.’

‘Since when?’

‘They left an address in Ward Road shortly after midday yesterday. Neither has been seen since.’

‘That’s the Asselins’ house …’

Dyer felt sick in his vitals. He could hear the creaking of plastic. Updark’s face was furrowed as he lowered his head.

‘Your son was there, too, I believe.’

‘Yes. It was Pierre’s birthday. He’d invited Leandro and the rest of the team for a sleepover.’

‘Mrs Asselin says that Marvar turned up before lunch and whisked Samir away without so much as a hi or a thank-you. She was downstairs at the time. Didn’t even see him.’

‘That’s odd,’ said Dyer, who distinctly now recalled Marvar arranging to collect Samir at six. Leandro hadn’t mentioned that Samir had left the party early. Then again, if Leandro was submerged in a computer game, he wouldn’t have noticed anything. ‘Could it have been someone else who picked him up?’

‘The butler described a man who did resemble Marvar, and we’ve asked to see the security tapes.’

They were taking a lot of trouble for someone who had only been missing for half a day.

‘Why do you think Marvar arrived so early?’ asked Hissop.

‘I’ve no idea. I know he was worried about an injury to Samir’s leg. But it didn’t sound serious.’

‘We need to speak to the last person who saw him,’ Hissop said.

Updark pressed the tips of his fingers together. ‘Silvi Asselin said he’d been with you.’

‘That was on Saturday.’

‘Talk us through that, would you?’ said Hissop.

‘I bumped into him outside the OUP.’

‘When exactly?’ asked Updark, notebook open, pen poised.

‘It would have been shortly after one p.m.,’ said Dyer. ‘He came home for a coffee. We went for a walk on Port Meadow.’

‘How long a walk?’

‘Oh, a couple of hours.’

Hissop looked at Updark.

‘And then?’

‘He came back to St Barnabas Street. We had a pizza, two bottles of wine, and he stayed the night. He was worried he had drunk too much, so I offered him a bed. He was gone by the time I got up.’

‘Weren’t your sons playing football on Saturday afternoon?’

‘They were.’